Flight of Heaven
by Toboe LoneWolf
Summary: When need calls, Tenten can fly with the wings of dragons. [One shot]


_Summary:_ When need calls, Tenten can fly with the wings of dragons. (One shot)  
_Disclaimer:_ Toboe LoneWolf does not own _Naruto_.

Note: This was originally a contest piece for the LJ Tenten community 2006 contest. So uh. Yeah. I'm a liiiiiiiiiittle late. XP Oh well. There was also a previous version of this fic, which you can find on my livejournal under the tag "cut-out."

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**Flight of Heaven**

Her hands flash and draw new steel.

Slash at one exposed throat, step back, duck, stab, sidestep—two heads roll down, cut off by her katana—ascending sweep, and another no longer has a leg—block, and fall back, _fall back_—

Fall back to back with her teammates, retreating one step at a time, trying to keep them all alive.

"Do it, Tenten!" Neji growls as he faces Tenten momentarily. He loses contact as he turns and palm-strikes a Sound-nin. "We don't have time for this. _Go!_"

She grits her teeth and stands her ground. "_No_, damnit!"

_"There may come a time when completing the mission will mean possible sacrifice or loss of your team members. Your mission may be critical."_

—_Flight—_

A dividing canyon with safety on the other side. A broken bridge, ropes cut. Team Gai, carrying critical intelligence on Sound-nin, fighting. They had to make it across.

Strike for the gut and spill agony, roll with the blade to remove it and continue moving in the steps, turn and face the one at Lee's back and take him down, don't stop, _don't stop_—

Don't stop moving, don't stop breathing, don't dare let them through. Keep dancing her dance of death…

_"When that happens, you will be forced to make a choice…"_

—_All I want is flight—_

_No_, she doesn't want to do this.

She is the only one.

But sacrifice her teammates for the sake of the mission?

Her heart cries anathema.

_"But you've always emphasized the concept of friendship!"_

—_All I need is flight—_

She can do it, she knows. A kodachi with a rope tied would allow her to get across the gaping canyon easily. She could run, get to the Konoha border, deliver their hard-fought intelligence on the inner-workings of Otogakure and complete their mission.

But Neji and Lee…

—_Flight, I desire wings of flight—_

This was hell on earth. Sweat and tears and exhaustion, broken bones and pain. It was easy to become claustrophobic amongst charred and crushed and impaled bodies, the smell of death following as they ran for the border. She yearned to rise above death—

"Tenten! Neji and I shall be fine!" Lee shouts, kicking in a Sound-nin's head. He is not stupid. He knows. But he willingly gives, and gives, and if he in the end can give this to her, then he will have done well.

_Like hell, Lee._

Snake-snap slash and wheel around, parry and counter, sidestep and cut through muscles and tendons and bone, and _no,_ Neji, I won't, _I won't_—

Fire burns in her chest. She perched on the precipice of _choice_—

—_I desire nothing but flight—_

She sees Lee cry out in pain—

Neji hunch over from a knife strike—

—Falling—

—Spreading red—

—_Flight all I want is flight all I _need_ is flight rise up on wings of flight give me flight givemeflightgivemewingsto_fly_—_

A voiceless howl of defiance echoes in her ears, and unconsciously her hands sweep to hidden scrolls in her sleeves, one scroll already clutched between her teeth—

—Hands forming seals unknown except to the dragon that called—

—_Wings of _flight_—_

Before, she had only tasted sky. Tasted the realm of birds, the abode of dragons, but always had to return to land as one earthbound. When she rose up along twin smoky dragons to call down Soshoryou, she had hovered, perhaps soared, but she had not _flown_. Glided, leapt, reached upwards, but never truly risen up and broken the bonds of gravity. Always, always, she had only felt a taste of true flight, and every time she yearned to return where dragons flew.

Now, she needs to _fly_.

_Peals of laughter as her father threw her up higher and higher, her mother watching with an amused smile in her face._

_She came down with her hair falling out of its tiny buns, giggling madly as she waved her two-year old hands. "Up! Up!"_

_Her father laughed and wiggled his finger at her. "Ah, little heaven, you're going to dance with dragons, just like your grandmother predicted …"_

Scrolls unraveling and trailing as hands sweep down, as she leaps for heaven's sky—

_"This is the first step, Tenten. Here is the dance. Here is the pattern. Follow _this_, and you will _be_. This is why our band is called _Tenchi_, Heaven and Earth…"_

Follow, and break _free_—

_"You have perfected it, then?"_

_Perhaps it was in doubt that he asked, or cool interest, or even distain. In the end, it mattered little to him._

_She slammed down two scrolls into the ground in answer. _

_Watch me. _

_"Soshoryou!"_

Rise up beyond the ties of earth, and reign judgment. Violet chakra turned golden-red swirls and cracks and flares, curling in coils that wrap around her. She reaches out in instinct, grasping for the things she felt in childhood, of air rushing past skin and the rough tenderness of wind beneath clouds as her far-off family taught her heaven and earth—

—_To __**fly**__—_

How can true flight be described to ones earthbound? Those that fly cannot give an answer that can satisfy themselves. Some say freedom; others release, something fluid and motion and unbound. It is something integral to their being; it is true life and rejoicing to them.

The dragon sings in sheer joy in its awakening, spreading its wings and rising even higher into the sky, into clouds. Plunges down with wings held tight and wind screaming past, twisting into a great loop before unfurling its wings to slow down.

With gentle care the dragon reaches down and picks up the ones that the girl-child cherishes so much, carrying them across to the other side in three simple wingbeats. Hovering slightly above the ground the dragon relaxes its grip and lowers the earthbound ones. For a moment, the dragon smiles.

In amusement the dragon turns to look at the once-opposition across. There are fewer now, but some still have the audacity of confronting a dragon. Lifting its lips the dragon grins fangs, and claw-swipes the wind, sending cold steel fire. Most fall, and the others run and scream entertainingly for the dragon. The dragon snorts.

With a sigh the dragon lowers its hands and lets the pretty paper scrolls float down to cover her as she curls up and settles. The dragon recedes, but the girl-child remembers this time, and knows that when need comes, she can call the dragon again. The girl-child murmurs, and already she misses her wings. Her eyes close.

…

"…What was that?"

"I don't know."

"I didn't know Tenten could do that… It was as if she rose up on golden-red winds and then danced amongst them…it was truly beautiful, was it not, Neji?"

A pause. "Yes. It was."

She wakes up to Neji's concerned eyes as he holds her up, Lee's face appearing over his shoulder. They are still on the mountaintop, for there are familiar clouds above. She is pressed tightly against Neji's chest, and she can feel the bandages underneath. They are safe; she relaxes. She looks up and cracks a tired smile.

"Hey, Neji? Didja see that?"

Her fingers tighten slightly on crinkled papers and soft white cloth. She remembers.

"I _flew_."

—_To fly on wings of dragons—_


End file.
